In her Weekly Political Roundup two weeks back, Dana at Mombian reported that “Two conservative groups in California have filed proposed ballots that would amend the California Constitution to define marriage as one man-one woman regardless of how the state Supreme Court rules.” Her link is to the San Jose Mercury News piece on it.
This week’s Task Force email Update picks up the story, and conveys that The Task Force Action Fund has donated generous funds and field organizers to the efforts of Equality for All, which is fighting the measure. The Task Force urges Californians to get involved. (At the least: beware of trolls asking you to sign a petition to get this measure on the ballot, and then report them after you give them a dressing-down and scurry away!)
In its entirety, here’s Equality for All’s News Alert:
SIGNATURE GATHERING HAS BEGUN TO PLACE DISCRIMINATORY MARRIAGE MEASURE ON CALIFORNIA’S NOVEMBER 2008 BALLOT
Jan. 31, 2008: After failing multiple times to qualify an anti-marriage equality measure for the ballot, conservative organizations are now utilizing paid signature gatherers in another attempt to put this discriminatory constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot according to Equality for All, the statewide campaign to defeat such measures. In 2006, California became the first state where an effort to qualify such a discriminatory amendment failed.
Equality for All has confirmed that an out-of-state organization is backing this effort to permanently deny loving and committed California couples the right to marry. Nationformarriage.org and protectmarriage.com are financially supporting this effort.
“These out-of-state extremists continue to expend time and resources to write discrimination into our California Constitution, in spite of the fact that Californians are tired of these costly and divisive campaigns,” said Lorri L. Jean, chief executive officer of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and member of the Equality for All campaign’s executive committee. “California voters have a long history of supporting fairness and equal treatment under the law. We believe voters will reject this measure, and the politics of hate and division it represents.”
“We are committed to a vigorous opposition campaign,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, and a member of the Equality for All executive committee. “Californians support equality and we are determined to make sure voters understand the very real pain that comes with marriage discrimination and how these types of amendments will only bring harm to California families.”
An amendment of this type would have long-term and damaging repercussions for Californians.
“Every day, lesbian and gay Californians are denied the right to marry the person they love. Every day, they are denied the dignity, respect, rights and responsibilities that only come with marriage,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a member of the Equality for All executive committee. “People should not be treated unfairly under the laws of our state. This amendment to our state’s constitution would enshrine discrimination for generations of Californians.”
“It is imperative that fair-minded Californians reject these efforts, by refusing to sign the petitions and talking with their friends and family members about why marriage discrimination is wrong,” said Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, chief executive officer of The San Diego LGBT Community Center and a member of the executive committee of the Equality for All campaign. “Allowing one group of Californians to impose such a damaging form of discrimination on another group is simply wrong.”
Equality for All.
Equality for All is preparing to lead the fight against these proponents of discrimination. Our statewide coalition of LGBT and civil rights organizations, labor and business, straight and gay, is determined to defeat any attempts to write discrimination into our constitution. We need you. Your families. Your friends. Your co-workers.Don’t lose the rights we worked so hard to win. Learn more.
These folks called me about 2 weeks ago. It was a robocall- I was to press “1” if I wanted to sign. Hell, I didn’t know they were putting something on the ballot again- I thought they were just gathering data, you know, making a list of crazy people who might support a crazy idea and a crazy candidate.
When a real person calls, I have a favorite technique I like to use. After a quick question and response from me, they launch into a lengthy spiel without pausing for air. I put the phone down and let them go at it. After a bit, the spiel ends abruptly and I can hear them calling out, “Hello, hello? are you there?” I especially love to type on a nearby keyboard during the call because I know they can hear it. Makes my day every time.
But if I had a little monkey, I think it would be great fun to tell the caller that I have someone who wants to talk to them and then let the little monkey tell them some poopy diaper stories. It would be the perfect response to their campaign.
Just a note about people who gather ballot initiative signatures: My experience is that most of the people who go around with these initiatives have a huge stack of them, and barely understand what a lot of them are. It is a crappy job — one step below telemarketer, IMO, and it pays crap. Sometimes they get paid by the signature. Some of the people who do it are just young and/or unskilled, but some are unemployable creeps. If you see one of them, you may have to do some digging to find out if they have that particular initiative.
Also, the website of the National Bigots Organization or whatever they’re called lists a bunch of places (mostly fundamentalist churches) where you can go to get copies if you want to help out, so there may be volunteers with just this initiative. Equality California is recommending that you just ask them if they’re paid and report it to them, although personally I won’t be able to resist telling the person what a disgusting bigot they are (in the case of a volunteer) or how they are should be ashamed of themselves (in the case of people who are paid) and that even working in MacDonalds would be better. But I doubt there are a whole helluva lotta people circulating this particular petition in the Bay Area. I noticed that there’s one church in Daly City that is circulating it, though, and I’ve been sending bad thoughts their way.